The End Is Near

The end of the semester is only a few weeks away. The vet
school starts finals in less than a week, and undergraduates’ exams
are a few days later. This means less sleep, and that more
caffeine will be consumed, just to gain a few more hours of
valuable study time. However, if students use their time
wisely leading up to exams, there will be no lack of sleep, and
they will be rested for the finals.

Unlike high school students, college and professional school
students have one or possibly two tests a day during finals
week. If there are more than three tests scheduled, students
can ask the professor to take the test at a different time to help
space everything out. There is also “dead” week or day, which
is a week of no class, to allow more time to study. It might
be easier in undergraduate classes to study the night before the
test, but it is necessary in vet school to study more than just the
night before. This year Thanksgiving falls the week before
finals, so many students are coming back to College Station Friday
morning to study all weekend for their tests. We will also be
studying all week before the exams to prepare ourselves.

Besides just preparing for finals, we are also preparing for the
spring semester. As second years, we begin Junior Surgery,
which consists of learning and applying surgical skills. More
specifically, it is suturing techniques and the proper methods to
perform surgery. Everything we learn second year will be used
third year to perform our first solo surgery, which most of the
time is either a spay or a neuter. To prepare, my class just
purchased surgery packs for use in the class. Students can
either rent a pack from the school or buy their very own. As
a class, we also select a scrub color to wear while on surgery; our
color is grey. The surgical supplies and scrubs will be used
throughout our vet school years and sometimes into our professional
careers.

I cannot wait to begin next semester!! Good luck on finals and
stay warm!